In the sanctuary city of Somerville, officials and business owners say recent federal immigration policy changes have led to a “real fear” throughout the community as some restaurateurs consider closing due to the “absence of people.”

“People are afraid to be outside on the streets,” City Councilor Matthew McLaughlin told his colleagues last week, “law-abiding people who are just trying to survive and take care of their families in this community. And there’s a real fear amongst both undocumented and naturalized American immigrants who are afraid of being mistaken for being undocumented.”

“We are seeing this play out in the business community as well,” he continued, “especially in East Somerville where the restaurants are not making as much money as they did before, the clientele is in hiding.”

Somerville has been a sanctuary city since 1987, limiting its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The City Council reaffirmed that status in the weeks after Donald Trump won last November’s election, vowing to protect all immigrants at ‘sensitive locations’ such as schools, hospitals, places of worship and courthouses.

But Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown and mass deportation push have hung large since the president regained office last month. Trump has also thrown out a policy that prevented arresting illegal immigrants at places of worship and schools.

Daniel Bojorquez, a Mexican native, owns La Brasa restaurant in East Somerville, a neighborhood in which McLaughlin said 75% of its businesses are immigrant-owned. Eateries offer food from all over the world, especially tacos and Chinese.

“A couple of restaurant owners within the area … they’re talking about potential closures because … the whole street feels like a ghost town,” Bojorquez told the City Council.

“People are scared,” he added.

East Somerville’s business owners meet monthly to discuss ways to continue business and how to improve the neighborhood. They are pushing for city officials to be more involved and consider creating an incentive for people to visit their restaurants and shops,  Bojorquez said.

“East Somerville has a very big concentration of immigrants so you can really see the impact everything is having,” he said. “What we’re trying to figure out is how to bring this to everyone’s attention.”

Councilors approved McLaughlin’s order for the city’s economic development director to report on the “economic impact to small businesses … as a result of recent federal immigration policy changes.”

McLaughlin said the entire community should be aware of the impacts even residents who believe Trump’s policies don’t impact them. Somerville’s population of roughly 80,500 includes nearly 24% of residents born outside of the country, Census figures show.

“It is affecting our tax revenue and that will in turn affect our ability to serve this community,” McLaughlin said.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Sunday he’s “not happy” with the 14,000 illegal immigrants that have been arrested and deported to their home countries since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

“We’ve got to do a lot more,” Homan said on CNN’s State of the Union show. “We’ve got to get the targeting and production up. It’s hard work,” he added.

The Somerville City Council slammed the Boston-based ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations for citing how Somerville District Court initially ignored a detainer and released a Turkish national who was arraigned in late December for assault and battery on an intellectually disabled person and witness intimidation.

“This is a tragic example of what can go wrong when local jurisdictions refuse to honor immigration detainers,” ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a statement. “Unfortunately, he re-offended resulting in a second arrest for assaulting an intellectually disabled resident.”

Agents arrested the suspect Berkan Karamurtlu, 27, in Somerville on Jan. 22, according to a release.

“The head of ICE in Boston is basically saying that Somerville let this guy go out and commit crimes,” McLaughlin said. “He went to a court in Somerville which we have no jurisdiction over at all, and I know that may be a strange concept to the president and people who don’t understand how court systems work or have no respect for the court.”

“Our Welcoming City Ordinance has nothing to do with this guy being released,” he added, “and to see a federal official make such an inaccurate statement is really concerning, and it shows you the direction where things are going where half-truths are going to be put out there about our sanctuary city status in the hopes of harming us.”

Councilor At-Large Jake Wilson added: “Under state law, the district court of Somerville wasn’t in any position to detain, to hold them on that civil detainer. It’s one of those cases where all too often facts get lost in people in a rush to tell a story and yell about things.”

Trump border czar Tom Homan (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Broadway in East Somerville.(Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Somerville City Hall.(Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)